![]() If you premaster say a whole group of songs so all the mixes are at the same rms level then mastering is a snap because all your tracks are going to be the same volume before you even master and that is a nice place to be. Everyone knows I am pretty well a big fan of VU's! You can certainly produce without them it is just with them I feel it is all a bit easier and more straight forward. But even if not you can always insert a plugin to subtract or add gain straight after a plug-in. A lot of plug-ins have output level controls too making this easy. Back it off after the plugin and get it back to the ref level. Some plug-ins will just add gain for example to a signal and it is good to be aware of it. You can still use an insert though it is just that you will have to enable input monitoring in order to see it working which is also fine too. So you can put one of their meters there or a third party VU. For example Studio One allows you to insert a plugin before the signal even reaches the track. Ever had a track that is too soft to be heard in a mix? Reason is that the rms level is too low. Something that does NOT happen when you maintain incoming peak levels to the same value. Because all your tracks will be at the same volume level. Keeping rms levels the same and letting the peak levels vary make it much easier to mix. Maintaining the same peak levels on your tracks mean the rms levels are all over the place that live under the peak values. ![]() The virtual meters are not quite as good as an expensive quality VU movement ballistics wise yet but some of them are getting better all the time such as the Klanghelm meter for example. When a real VU swings wildly it means something is out of control and often you can track it down and sort it out. Real VU meters offer more information in the ballistics of the meter. The VU is making use of the full scale deflection making it much easier to see. Although DAW's such as Sonar and many others do offer rms indicators they are way too low on the scale to be very useful. Modern DAW's made the mistake of cutting them out but now they have made a comeback. It is older concept that was all we had years ago and it seemed to work. But apart from drums nearly all other types of signals can be monitored very nicely rms wise. VU's should be used in conjunction with peak metering because the very fast transient sounds will slip past the VU meter and you need your peak meters to keep an eye on those types of sounds. It is a handy tool for checking rms levels in and out of plug-ins and plug-in chains as well. They won’t move the VU much anyway and the headroom will ensure they are not clipped pretty well anywhere. With the headroom built in you dont have to sweat peaks so much. VU's can be put over buses and the main mix as well to ensure the same ref level is maintained in both of those places. It also helps you set the recording level which is something many have problems with. It ensures all your tracks are recorded at the same rms level. ![]() Then you can track onto your tracks with the VU just hitting 0 dB VU on the way in. The VU meter is setup so 0 dB VU aligns itself to a digital reference below 0 DBFS such as -14, -18 or -20. It is one way of maintaining correct rms gain staging right throughout the production process.
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